This Year, International Pi Day is Numerically Extra Special
Saturday is International Pi Day. The reason for the day is due to the numerical value of Pi's first three digits 3.14, (or on the calendar, March 14). But this year's International Pi Day is even closer to the never-ending number, according to Slate.
Since the year is 2015, the date for Saturday's special mathmatical celebration is 3/14/15. That's the first five digits of Pi: 3.1415. A similar calendar matchup won't occur for more than another century.
There is more, though. In the morning, at 9:26 and 53 seconds, the date and time of Saturday matches up even more digits in Pi: 3.141592653. The numbers are really lining up this year! That is the first 10 digits of Pi all related to Saturday's date, year and time. The 10 digit similarity will repeat Saturday night at 9:26 and 53 seconds, of course.
This will be the last time for 100 years that 10 digits relating to the date, year and time will match up with Pi like this.
The first Pi Day came about in 1988 when physicist Larry Shaw began celebrating Pi Day by eating pies and walking around in circular spaces at the San Francisco Exploratorium.
Finally, in 2009, it became official. House Resolution 224 of the first session of the U.S. 111th Congress was passed. This made every March 14 a day when educators were encouraged to "observe the day with appropriate activities that teach students about pi and engage them about the study of mathematics."
But, International Pi Day has more so turned into a day of eating pie, baking pie and throwing pie. Pi and Pie are not technically related at all.
Pi is the English spelling of the 16th letter of the ancient Greek alphabet. It is known by the Pi symbol (π) first used by William Jones to denote the ratio of the circumference to the diameter of a circle.
Pie -- on the other hand -- simply refers to those baked goods that people all over the world enjoy eating. The Oxford English Dictionary says it may have come from the medieval Latin word for pastry, pia.
Still, it is nice to see educators teaching their students about Pi. Although the number never ends, mathematicians have come a long way, calculating Pi to 10 trillion decimal places. Students might only be able to say a few numbers after 3.14, but at least there is awareness once a year about the magical number.
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